Wigan Council 'listening' as warehouse plans dropped

A consultation is due to end on Wigan Council's plan for future development, with four sites potentially earmarked for warehouses being removed.

It follows an outcry from residents over the construction of huge warehouses close to homes near Astley.

The local authority said it had listened and "struck the right balance between supporting economic growth and job creation".

Greenbelt campaigners and opposition councillors claimed they had forced the council to act.

Councils must put together a local plan which identifies sites for housing and business development every decade or so and Wigan is in the process of updating its own.

In the version under consultation, it has said four sites would not be taken forward.

They include to the north of M6 junction 26, Moss Industrial Estate extension, Bridgewater West in Astley, and West of Winwick Lane in Lowton.

The site being described as Bridgewater West is known locally as Higher Green and more than half a million sqaure feet of employment space was to have been built.

Joanna Allsop from the Save Our Astley and Boothstown Greenbelt lives nearby and said; "It was just unbelievable that anyone could suggest that it could be anything other than Greenbelt."

She said they are still concerned about its future, adding: "What we want is long-lasting protection. We want them to say that it is Greenbelt, not try to say that it's Greybelt."

The changes follow anger over the Astley warehouses which have led Mayor Bev Craig to question why modern industrial developments are being allowed so close to residential properties.

Wigan Council's Labour leader, Councillor Nazia Rehman, said; "I would say some lessons have been learned, consultation will be proactive when it comes to communities and how they want their places changed and what type of developments they want to see in their area.

"So we are working wherever we can to try to consult deeply when it comes to our communities."

Leader of the opposition in Wigan, Reform UK Councillor Paul Watson said: "If there is one positive outcome from the Astley warehouse fiasco, it is that all the four additional commercial warehouse sites in the borough have been removed from the 2040 plan."

The consultation ends at 17:00 BST on Wednesday 21st October 2026.

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